Transistor devices are widely used as electronic switches in a variety of different applications, such as industrial, automotive, or consumer applications. Those applications may include power conversion, motor drive, heating or lighting applications, to name only a few. In many of these applications, a driver switches on and off the transistor device based on a PWM (pulse-width modulated) signal. A frequency of this PWM signal can be dependent on the type of application and/or an operation state of the respective application. For example, in heating applications where a transistor device can be used to drive a heating resistor a frequency of the PWM signal can be several 10 Hz; in lighting applications where a transistor device can be used to drive a lamp, such as a light emitting diode (LED), a frequency of the PWM signal can be several 100 Hz; in automotive applications where a transistor device can be used to drive a magnetic valve a frequency of the PWM signal can be several kilohertz (kHz); in motor drive applications where a transistor device can be used to drive a brushed DC motor a frequency of the PWM signal can be several 10 kHz; and in power conversion applications where a transistor device can be used to drive an inductive load (choke) a frequency of the PWM signal can be several 10 kHz up to several 100 kHz.
Switching on and off a transistor device may be associated with electromagnetic interference (EMI) whereas a frequency of the EMI is the higher the faster the transistor device toggles between an on-state (switched on state) and an off-state (switched off state) In those applications where the transistor device is to be driven at high frequencies it may be necessary to switch on and off the transistor device fast so as to keep switching losses low. High switching speeds are associated with high frequency EMIs. Those high frequency EMIs are difficult to handle. There is therefore a need to provide a method for driving a transistor device that provides a tradeoff between switching losses and EMI.